Songwriters are advised to write about what they know. And perhaps no one knows that lesson better than Carl Bell, the guitarist and primary songwriter for the 1990s post-grunge act Fuel.
“If you write about what happened to you and what has happened in your life, it kind of comes through in a song and people will understand that,” he affirms.
The key evidence in Bell’s argument is the tune that put Fuel on the map: “Shimmer.” Released as the group’s debut single and lead track from their first album, Sunburn, “Shimmer” soared to number two on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, and did very respectable numbers on three other charts, paving the way for Fuel’s millennial breakthrough with similar acts like Creed and Nickelback.
As Bell explains, the song came out of an experience that many of its listeners found relatable.
“ ‘Shimmer” was like that,” he tells Guitar Player. “It is one of those songs that you're happy to have written. It did quite well for us too, and still does.”
The song’s genesis was an out-of-the-blue night-time phone call from his ex- girlfriend to discuss her marital woes. As Bell explained in a VH1 performance of the song, their romance had started in high school and ended soon after. The woman met someone else, whom she ended up marrying.
“It was kind of that situation where there was a little bit of a remorse maybe on her part,” Bell says today. “But her life with me might not have turned out to be so great too, so who knows? But you got to make some choices in life, and sometimes you have to deal with that.
“And those are hard choices. I think your mate in your life is probably the most important choice in your life. It’s a big one, so there’s a lot of pressure on that.”
The call aroused Bell’s thoughts about what they’d shared and his empathy for the dilemma she found herself in. And those feelings soon found voice in song.
Bell says the song took root once he found its opening chords. A unique feature of “Shimmer” are the opening chiming electric guitar chords, all movable chord shapes with an open G string, that form the basis for the song’s foundation.
“They're not just your basic C, D and G kind of chords,” he says. “I like a lot of open strings. It's kind of going back to a Tom Petty rhythm guitar concept, where you have open strings and having that chord move that same position up and down the neck with all those strings ringing through. And it kind of glues the chords together and makes it sound a little different.
“I just remember hitting those chords and going,’ Ooh, that's nice, I like what's happening here.’ The chords were voiced in a way that was inspiring and piqued my curiosity. It made me want to write the song. I thought, There’s something in that. So I started putting lyrics and melody over it and developed the song out of it.”
Bell says it was obvious he was onto something once he and the group demoed it.
“What I remember the most today is working on the demo of ‘Shimmer’ in our drummer's house when he lived in Pennsylvania,” Bell recounts. “We all felt good about the demo.”
“Shimmer” originally appeared on the group’s third self-released EP, Porcelain in 1996. Although it was a different version from the one that became famous, the recording captured the song’s magic and was pivotal to the band’s upward career trajectory. Soon after its release, “Shimmer” became the number one–requested song on radio stations in the group’s home town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“The original version of the song went to radio stations locally in Harrisburg and started getting some traction there,” Bell recalls. “And since we're close to New York, the radio stations started calling New York record labels saying, ‘Hey, we've got a song here that's number one in our area, so you guys might want to pay attention to this’. And so, they did and that's basically how we got signed. It was just off of that one song.”
Labels soon came calling, and the group signed to 550/Epic. Fuel remade the song for Sunburn.
“We did it all from scratch again just to try to get a better recording of it,” Bell says. One of his favorite aspects of the final version is the lo-fi guitar sound on the song’s intro. “That was the sound I wanted to get, which I have a hard time recreating now,” he says. “It was kind of what was happening in the room with the mic and the particular head and cabinet I used at the time.”
While he admits the details are hazy after 25 years, Bell believes he used his oxblood-finished Les Paul through either a Marshall “Plexi” or JCM800. “And probably just on the clean side of those too,” he says, ‘even though they don't really clean up that well, especially back in the day.”
In recent times, there’s been a resurgence in bands like Fuel who achieved popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many have hit the road again playing to huge audiences who remain as passionate as they were back when the bands were at their commercial peak.
“I know it's not 2001, but we're still enjoying the crowds,” says Bell. “Our live shows are even better, as we’re always adapting the live show so that we present ourselves in the best way possible. And it's coming across very well. I think a lot of people are looking at all the bands from our era like Creed and others who are all having a complete resurgence today and remember the backlash they endured. Remember, Creed was the whipping boy back in the day, as were Nickelback too. Everybody hated Nickelback and Creed. But now those bands are getting the last laugh, and I love it!’
And as he’s seen, 25 years on, the fans still love “Shimmer.” Bell believes the song connects with listeners in a universal way, which he says explains its longevity.
As for his ex?
“I hope she's found her happiness where she is,” he says, “and has moved on as well.”
